By Jasmine Hall
Jackson Hole News&Guide
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

JACKSON — On Thursday, the Wyoming Transportation Commission — which holds the purse strings of the state’s transportation agency — advanced what could be a $30 million employee housing project in Teton County.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation is looking to build up to 24 homes behind its office located south of Jackson, right off of South Highway 89. The lot poised for housing is nestled between Evans Lane and Hog Island Road.

WYDOT Chief Engineer Keith Fulton anticipated that at least 16 units would be needed in the next three years, according to his report to the commission. Four would be for highway patrol officers, 10 for construction and maintenance workers and two employees in the driver’s services office.

But before the houses are built, site and infrastructure work is required, including: roads, grading for the foundation, retaining walls, utility, sewer and water connections. WYDOT sought the commission’s approval on Thursday to put out a bid to hire a contractor to prepare the lot for housing.

Ultimately, commissioners said the agency could put out a bid. But there were still concerns about the cash-strapped transportation agency prioritizing an expensive housing project in Teton County, when there were other needs like a headquarters remodel, a Transportation Management Center dispatch and planning building or an I-25, I-80 interchange. 

Some commissioners also proposed that the Wyoming Legislature and Teton County solve the problem, as well as help other communities struggling with housing.

“Why don’t we have a fund in Teton County that has to be paid by Teton County to solve the housing crisis and the exorbitant real estate values that they created by their … burdensome regulations, mitigation fees and development regulations that make houses three or four or five or 10 more times expensive than they are in Cheyenne or Laramie or Sundance?” Commissioner Pat Crank, one of two members to vote against the site work bid, said.

“We just keep ignoring that we do not have the money to do this,” he added.

Other commissioners thought they couldn’t wait. Susan Holmes said she “didn’t disagree” with Crank’s comments, but that she still concluded the housing project was necessary because “the solution is not happening.”

“In order to provide the public safety functions that we provide,” Commissioner Holmes said, “we’ve got to do this.”

WYDOT Director Darin Westby also said Teton County housing remained one of his top two priorities, especially since the project had been “kicked” down the road for several years. He said being able to provide housing in an area where he struggles to hire employees would help with the agency’s mission, “to provide a safe and effective transportation system in the state of Wyoming.”

He pointed out that there’s not a big product inventory to purchase employee housing in Teton County and he said a two to three-bedroom home runs between $1.5 and $2 million. If the project ended up $30 million for 24 units, that would come out to $1.2 million a home.

The department also already offers a roughly $2,800 monthly stipend for employees in Teton County to incentivize employees — a policy dating to 2007. In other communities where there is WYDOT employee housing available, employees pay no rent.

Teton County WYDOT employees who moved into housing would no longer get the stipend and simply live in the homes south of town.

“So we have a little bit of return on that investment, is what you’re going to tell me,” Commissioner Marlowe Scherbel said.

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